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More on the Conservatives trying to hide behind StatsCan, Mr. Sheikh

Posted by Scott Tribe on July 29, 2010, at 10:15 am |

Briefly, My colleague the Jurist at his blog details some more blanket condemnations of the Conservatives bone-headed/ideological move to kill the mandatory longform census, but he did miss one article that should be read – C.E.S Franks at the Globe and Mail explains why Munir Shiekh resigned, and the probable chain of events. He isn’t impressed:

The problem Mr. Sheikh faced was not the choice between voluntary survey or mandatory census, but that the minister went public with inaccurate claims about the advice he had received. Mr. Clement was selective to the point that his public claims have not accurately reflected the advice given by Statistics Canada and its public service head. This misrepresentation called into question the integrity of Statistics Canada, the office of the chief statistician and Mr. Sheikh himself.

…What a senior public servant does in situations like this is talk with the Clerk of the Privy Council. This Mr. Sheikh apparently did. The clerk wears two hats: He is deputy minister to the prime minister, and he is head of the public service. As head of the public service, he would be expected to be on the side of the senior public servant. In Britain, it has not been not unknown for the head of the public service to take a minister to task for such matters as misrepresenting the advice given to him by the public service. This apparently does not happen in Canada. As deputy minister to the prime minister, the clerk’s duty is to protect the prime minister and government. This does happen in Canada.

Something stinks in this entire affair, and it is not Mr. Sheikh or Statistics Canada.

1 comment to More on the Conservatives trying to hide behind StatsCan, Mr. Sheikh

“Mr. Clement was selective to the point that his public claims have not accurately reflected the advice given by Statistics” … big surprise here … as one of Harpie’s many Ministers Of Propaganda, Tony is a third string BullShit Artist, so beholden to Stooge Steve on the one hand whilst clearly NOT beholden to any sense of integrity … deliberately misleading and downright lying to Canadians from coast to coast to coast !!!